Ryan McNeil
I hope you’ll pardon me if I keep this short and sweet this week.
With all sorts of social activities and then all sorts of Oscar coverage, I found myself less-inclined to watch a whole lot of new selections through the last two weeks. Instead, I surrounded myself with the comfort food contained on my shelves and revisited a few old favorites.
We’ve all been there, right? Stretches of time where you put off trying that new restaurant in favour of eating at your favorite burger place again?
Here’s The Two Weeks at Hand…
Screenings
THE WIND RISES – Accidentally caught the dubbed version, which was a pretty neat comparison to my first watch of the subtitled version.
POMPEII – It’ll be hard to knock this out of the cellar at the end of the year.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
SHAFT – Actually better than I thought it would be. I was scared by
WINNING TIME: REGGIE MILLER VS THE NEW YORK KNICKS – These 30-for-30 docs are a great little time-waster.
MY LIFE AS A DOG – One of these days, I need to dig deeper into Swedish film. Put it on the list.
HAROLD AND MAUDE – Something of an unofficial blindspot watch, and right now it’s a high contender for my favorite first-watch of the year.
PSYCHOS – Such. A cool. Idea.
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR – More thoughts on this tomorrow.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
THE DARJEELING LIMITED – Pop quiz – is this Wes’ least-liked film?
MOONRISE KINGDOM – The Budapest prep is in full gear.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND – Why do I feel like this Spielberg gem is in danger of being forgotten?
GRAVITY – Guess what? It still works pretty damned well on a small screen.
INCEPTION – Along with GRAVITY and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, this made for a great little night of sci-fi.
GHOSTBUSTERS – Godspeed Egon.
KINKY BOOTS – One of Chiwetel’s best performances ever. Give it a watch if you’ve never seen it.
CRAZY STUPID LOVE – If I had three wishes, one of them would be to be as cool as Gosling is in this movie.
KILL BILL vol 1 – Where’s my Whole Bloody Affair?
KILL BILL vol 2 – No seriously, where’s my Whole Bloody Affair?
49 First-Timers, 43 Re-Watched
7 Screenings
92 Movies in Total
Glad you liked Harold and Maude, I thought you would.
My three wishes would be: 1. Be as cool as Gosling in Crazy Stupid Love. 2. Look like Gosling in Crazy Stupid Love. 3. I have no need for a third wish.
I could do with his wardrobe as a third wish.
First-Timers: This is the End, WWE Elimination Chamber 2014 (pretty terrible PPV), Schizopolis, Mississippi Mermaid, Monsters University, Now You See Me, Grown Ups 2 (never in my life had I been more offended in watching something where calling it a bad movie is an insult to that term), Fill the Void, Two English Girls, and today, Erin Brockovich.
Re-Watches: Koyaanisqatsi, Nine Months, and The Princess Bride.
How in the world did you end up watching Grown Ups 2?
I have very sadomasochistic tendencies to watch bad movies just to see how much I can take it. If it was playing on an airplane. I would’ve jumped off after the first 10. To me, it’s the anti-film. It just sucks the life out of you in every way. It makes you feel unclean. It goes beyond the fart jokes, burp jokes, and such. It’s trash at its lowest form.
Yup, Harold and Maude is a good one. Glad you liked it!
Whenever you skip a week I expect my list to balloon, but this time I guess I was doing a lot of things other than movies!
First time:
The Bastard Swordsman – Shaw Brothers on 35mm in the theater is a divine experience every single time. And this one is insane and awesome.
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Delightful Forest
Pitch Perfect
And I re-watched:
Red Heat
You and me both – I’m a little bit surprised that this entry didn’t climb up towards 20 listings, but I guess I had more on my mind.
You know I’ve never seen Red Heat – am I missing anything?
I don’t think you’re missing much with Red Heat. There’s some good moments, but unless you’re an Arnold completest like me it’s definitely an optional film.
Completist! That’s what I get for trusting auto-correct.
Winning Time is definitely an easy watch. I often get sucked into those 30 for 30 docs and end up watching the whole thing.
A little short on films over this time, but some good ones:
THE SQUARE – This engaged me more than I expected
REWIND THIS! – a fun look at the video culture from when I grew up
ANNIE – My mother-in-law bought this for my daughter, who’s just shy of five, and we watched it together. Surprisingly un-PC, and certain parts are pretty awful. Still, it has Albert Finney.
ELECTION (2005) – Slower paced then I expected, but packs a punch
SPECIAL WHEN LIT – An uneven documentary about pinball, but it has some cool moments
remind me – what about ANNIE hasn’t aged well? And does this give you any predisposition on the upcoming remake? (Feel free to leave that though on the trailer post I put up last Wednesday)